Launch of the Global Judicial Integrity Network
“Joining Forces to Strengthen Judicial Integrity and Prevent Corruption in the Justice System”
In Global Judicial Integrity Launching Meeting entitled “Joining Forces to Strengthen Judicial Integrity and Prevent Corruption in the Justice System” that was organized by UNODC in Vienne between 9-10th April 2018, our country was represented by the delegation of Court of Cassation presided by Mr. İsmail Rüştü CİRİT, First President of Court of Cassation and the delegation of Council of Judges and Prosecutors that is composed of Mr. Hüseyin Cem EREN and Halil AKKIZ, Rapporteur Judges of the Bureau of Foreign Relations and Project.
Programme started with opening speeches and the presentations on the subjects of “Challenges and Good Practices in Promoting Judicial Integrity and Preventing Corruption in the Justice System- The Role of the Global Judicial Integrity Network” and continued with working groups.
The works within the groups continued under the headings of “Strengthening of Judicial Integrity and Accountability”, “Preventing Corruption in the Justice System”, “Assessing and Monitoring Integrity”.
In the afternoon of the second day the plenary session was held and “Working Together for Judicial Integrity”, “Global Judicial Integrity Network: Structure and Future Priorities” were discussed. Also in this session Global Judicial Integrity Network Advisory Board was assigned and the drafts of Judicial Integrity Declaration and Terms of Reference of Global Judicial Integrity Network were discussed.
During the plenary session, Turkish Delegation took the floor twice and expressed our views and objections about the drafts of Judicial Integrity Declaration and Terms of Reference. Within this context, the delegation expressed that the emphasis of “disciplinary penalty” in the draft of declaration should be softened in conjunction with the notion of “sanction” that is found in the terms of reference; that the balance between the accountability and independence of judiciary can meet at an optimum point if the members of judiciary adopt the values of judicial integrity and ethics; that only the establishment of a control mechanism does not provide this balance, and that as a result, Global Judicial Integrity Network should give priority to a structure that shows what is true in the issues of judicial integrity rather than directing to penalty and that accordingly motivates the members of judiciary to for adopting these values as the high values of their profession. It was also suggested that in the second paragraph of the declaration draft, courts of law and administrative justice should be added along with criminal justice to the fields in which the network is foreseen to be effective. The delegation also suggested that in the third paragraph in which judicial system is defined, “impartiality” should be added after “independence” and the repetition in the 8th article is eliminated.
The meeting ended following the closing speeches.
You can access the meeting programme and participants list through the following link:
http://www.unodc.org/ji/en/restricted/network-launch.html
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